aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Monday, December 03, 2007

Word of the Year: Locavore

The New Oxford American Dictionary announced its 2007 Word of the Year and Ben Zimmer of Oxford University Press went on On The Media to talk about it:

BEN ZIMMER: Yes. The Word of the Year is “locavore.” Locavore means someone who endeavors to eat only locally-produced foods. And, as you were saying, it’s a word that we know exactly when and where it was coined. In 2005, there was a group of four women in San Francisco who challenged Bay Area residents to eat only food that was grown in a 100-mile radius, and they called themselves the locavores.

BOB GARFIELD: Now, when I saw the word, I immediately understood, yeah, got loca - vore - got it - locally-grown produce. Does anyone actually use it?

BEN ZIMMER: Well, it’s being used quite a lot by the local food movement, either locavore, or there’s another variant form that’s often used - localvore, with an extra L in the middle. And at the moment, those two forms are battling it out a little bit. But the original form and currently the more popular form is locavore.

I vote no on the second “L.” Another word I expect we might here more about:

BOB GARFIELD: The next coinage, previvor.

BEN ZIMMER: Previvor is a word that is used to refer to a person who hasn’t been diagnosed with cancer but has survived a genetic predisposition for cancer or may have precancerous cells. So someone who doesn’t have full-fledged cancer but could possibly develop it becomes known as a previvor amongst this community.

And just how might it get to be word of the year?

BEN ZIMMER: Well, we would need to see these words being used more widely, also not so self-consciously, so not just talking about the word.